Yearning and Its Limits: Viraha and the Gendered Script of Desire in Haryanvi Saang

Saang/Swaang/Suaang or folk drama in Haryana, a state in North India, has been one of the most important forms of entertainment since the eighteenth century. This lesser-known and relatively understudied performative folk tradition comprises music, dance and drama, and its varied content is based on myths, legends and subjects of socio-cultural significance. The author-composer can narrate and simultaneously perform, and in the process enables the intervention and interplay of the socio-cultural landscape. This paper focuses on the textual analysis of two Saangs by Pandit Lakhmi Chand to examine how the male-authored and male-performed traditions project masculine anxieties through stylised depictions of female desire, betrayal and emotional excess. By tracing viraha within these folk performances, the paper highlights how male suffering becomes a cautionary tale that reinforces gender hierarchies and reasserts patriarchal control in the face of perceived feminine transgression.